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"Every police encounter carries the potential to ruin a life. BUSTED arms Americans with the information they need to minimize that risk. It should be required viewing in every school in America as part of a basic course in civics." Roger Pilon, Director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies Advertisement
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Police Run In
Hey i had a run in with police recently and i was wondering if any of you could help me figure out if my rights were violated. I was walking to my sober ride's car after a college party with two other friends. We had all been drinking and were all underage. As a joke, and without the other two of us knowing, one of my friends grabbed a bike that laying on the sidewalk and rode it a few feet. By the time the other two of us had looked back to see what the other guy was doing, we realized that a cap was pulling over and our friend had taken off running. As we were a half block ahead of our friend we tried to just keep walking inconspicuously towards our car.
However, when the cop realized that he could not catch my friend he cut through an alley and grabbed me by the shoulder. He proceeded to talk to me for several minutes and although i initially tried to deny deny deny. However, i realized that if he were to breathalyze me i certainly would not pass, and my number one concern was to not go to jail for the night. So to make a long story short I told him that it might be my friend(and roommate) that tried to take the bike, however i wasnt sure. The cops twice had me call my friend in order to find out where he was, however i purposely told them he was somewhere he wasnt so that he could get away.
The cop said that because of my cooperation that he would let me go and not give me a ticket. My friend ended up getting away and it all seemed to be working out.
This is when i believe my rights were violated, or I at least want to know if i was in the wrong. The following day at about 11:30 in the evening there was a knock at the door. When i asked who it was through the door he said police department. When i opened the door and stepped outside, I attempted to close the door behind me, as ive been previously told to do. The cop immediately put his hand on the door and put his foot in the threshold to make it impossible for me to close. He told me to leave the door open. I politely replied that i believe it was within my rights to close the door behind me. He then raised his voice and said something to the effect of, "Youre not going to f*cking close the damn door. I cut you a major break last night." I felt very intimidated and so left the door open. He asked me if my roommate was home and i said i believed he was. He asked me to go get him, and i did, which was the last of my interaction with the cop to date.
I attempted to be as polite as possible and dont believe i was overstepping my rights to try and keep him from entering and seeing into our home. I was sober for the home visit, however there were beer cans in plain sight in our home and i did not want to further incriminate myself nor any of our roommates. How else would I have been better served in handling this situation? If further issues arise from this event, do we have any legal basis for complaint?
Any and all help or advice youd be willing to offer would be greatly appreciated. thanks